Freely subscribe to our NEWSLETTER

Atos announces its participation in the COSMIC European project which aims to develop an advanced inspection system to detect CBRNE threats (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive) in shipping containers and ports. The project has received 3,5 million euro funding as part of the prestigious European research funding program, Horizon 2020.

The threat of CRBNE components used by terrorists is a major concern – not only for the European Union, but also for worldwide security. These materials could be hidden and smuggled inside containers or vehicles. Reports show that in the US alone, since 1998, there have been more than 1,300 reported incidents of lost, stolen, or abandoned devices containing sealed radioactive sources, with an average of 250 each year. The challenge of improving container and vehicle border crossing and critical infrastructure entrance security checks is of great importance in fighting terrorist threats, theft and smuggling.

COSMIC proposes an innovative approach for the detection of CBRNE materials allowing fast inspection of a large number of containers and vehicles in seaports and in crossing borders, through a three-stage detection system using a new set of innovative sensors. The idea behind this approach is to create a fast and reliable solution where only non-suspect containers will be released quickly after each stage, and only the suspected containers will continue to the next stage.

Atos, as the leader of the ‘System Analytics and User’ workstream, is in charge of the development of the COSMIC system, which will enable the analysis of the outputs of different devices and sensors, as well as other information received from external sources, in each detection stage. The software and algorithms developed will manage and control both the data and sensors in order to provide relevant decision-making to enable the CBRNE flow charts. This system will provide the following benefits:
• Faster and more reliable detection of threats in shipping containers
• Significative reduction of physical manual inspections
• Overall cost reduction
• Introduction of new innovative CBRNE sensors to be used in a 3-stage detection approach

All project developments will be validated on three controlled test fields in the Netherlands, Albania and Spain.

The project involves 3 companies (Atos, Lingacom, SEADM), three major research institutes (Technion, Ben-Gurion University and the Spanish National Research Council) and three end-user organizations (Dutch Customs Administration, Israel National police and Spain’s Guardia Civil).